GILGANDRA may boast many great Australians, but nearby Biddon has it's own champion, Racheal Hutchinson, who broke her own record to become national wool handling champion for the seventh time at the 2019 National Shearing and Wool Handling titles last Saturday.
Her love of the shearing industry began when a youngster helping her shearer father, Stephen, in sheds during school holidays.
She left school at 15 and worked six months in a solicitor's office but preferred the outdoors and headed back to shearing sheds.
Now 32 and stopping her career to have three children along the way, she's been wool handling for most of my life.
"The freedom of travel, meeting people and just the social side of the industry has kept me in it," Racheal said.
"I went to France at the beginning of the year for the world championship, ended up ninth in the world.
"Probably my biggest achievement was taking over the record of how many times a person has won the national.
"Now I am at seven."